“What do you mean, where did I get it? It’s in the bookshop where . . .” Wolf realized that he still hadn’t told Max—or any of the others—that he was living rough in Leonard Levar’s Antiquarian Bookshop. “Never mind. I’ll tell you afterward. I just had it in my, er, bedroom.”

“Okay, so it looks as if you were the Last Reader of a book called The Answer. And you got this boon at the end of it. I bet you’ve got masses of M-currency as well.”

“Yeah,” said Wolf sadly.

“What’s wrong?” asked Maximilian. “You should be happy. You’ve survived being a Last Reader—which, apparently, not everyone does—and when we work out what this boon is we’ll probably know what your art is too. And with all your M-currency you could probably try to get to the Otherworld. There are portals that the Guild hasn’t registered yet. As long as you’ve got enough lifeforce you can go through without your mark or papers or anything.”

“Great,” said Wolf half-heartedly.

“Oh I see,” said Maximilian. “This is about Natasha.”

“Yep,” said Wolf. “I did all that to get her back, and I don’t think she was even there.”

“Yeah,” said Maximilian. “I know. The same thing happened to me when I was a Last Reader. I kept thinking I had some connection with my ‘uncle’ in the book, and that he might lead me to my father. But he wasn’t my real uncle. It’s just one of the ways the story fits with you and gets you involved with it. And then it’s even more unnerving when you find out it’s just fiction.”

“I’m basically back at the beginning,” said Wolf.